10/22, 597, or A22?

NewCollector

NewCollector

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Getting tired of the action on my Savage Mark II, and thinking that it is time to switch over to a semi-auto. I love bolt actions in larger cartridges, but the short cycle on a .22 always makes me feel like I'm playing with a toy. Looking for something that allows for just a bit more fun-factor. Since I'm going .22lr for economics (vs. mag or .17hmr), I'd be looking for a 16.5" barrel (optimum length) as well to keep it relatively short and handy. Purpose for this rifle would be target shooting/plinking (and Mapleseed if it ever makes its way out here), as well as some small game hunting, though that would probably be secondary. I'd normally consider a tube fed as well, but Mapleseed recommends a magazine, and I find them convenient for hunting, so I think I'll stick with mags. Price isn't a huge factor, but less expensive is always better if it does the job.

I'm sure the question has been asked many times, but since it hasn't been asked by me, I'm going to post it. I think my main choices are the venerable 10/22, the upstart 597, or the newcomer A22. Others like the Mossberg Blaze, the Plinkster, or the Savage 64 just don't seem to have the quality and reliability to make their lower price attractive. If there are others that might suit my needs, I'd love to have the suggestions. All of the one's I'm considering seem to have their ups and downs in terms of reputation, so I'm looking for a little advice from the experience of others.

10/22
Pros: The default choice, most popular, most established, most mods and support, most aftermarket parts.
Cons: Many claim it is over-rated. May have a lot of available support, but many also say you need to buy the upgrades, as the out of the box performance is poor. As well, until the legal reinterpretation gets corrected, there are no higher capacity magazines usable on the platform (or at least there are risks to ignoring the RCMP decree).

Remington 597
Pros: Cheaper than a 10/22, supposedly better out of the box reliability and accuracy, moderate amount of after market mods and support.
Cons: Reputedly lousy trigger, frequently have extraction issues, magazines may not be as reliable as 10/22.

Savage A22
Pros: Very accurate
Cons: Big and clunky (no short barreled versions yet, as well as just being beefy), little to no aftermarket support (yet), some reports of reliability issues.

At present, I am leaning towards the 597. I like the look and feel of it, it comes in at least two short barreled versions, it has high-cap magazines, its cheaper, I like the magazine release better than the 10/22's (though I prefer the 10/22's safety placement). What are the thoughts from the more experienced rimfire fans out there?
 
j_06 said:
What about a 795? I'm in pg, have two semis but want a bolt.
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I've generally not been impressed with the quality of the Marlin 22's I've held. I've heard the old 39's were great, but I haven't yet seen a Marlin firsthand that I wanted to buy. However, I'll take a look at the reviews and see if it would suit. I think that I had mentally lumped it in with the other low end semi-autos like the Blaze and Savage 64.

Budget-wise, cheaper is better, but not so cheap as to end up with something unreliable. I'm thinking under $500, hopefully with a few extra magazines and other minor accessories. I also tend to go used over new when possible, which usually helps a bit with cost.
 
Well, I'm a bolt gun guy but have had a few semis come and go over the years. (including a new 10/22) I'm not overly thrilled with 10/22s, 597s OR Marlins...but Marlins are the best of the batch if you ask me. I've yet to shoot a stock/econo semi that didn't have a crappy trigger, and Marlins are no exception. Except, once you get the trigger a bit better (MCARBO, cheap & easy) you're pretty much set unless you want a wood stock upgrade. (talking Marlin 795) The mags fit tighter on the Marlins but I actually LIKE the mags themselves more. Single stack, easy to fill your pockets with them. :) High capacity mags don't interest me one bit.

In the last 10 years, I've bought 2 x 795s and a Ruger 10/22~all new. All 3 had slightly crooked rear sights, but all 3 were guns I planned to scope. The 10/22 and one of the 795s have been sold off. The other 795 comes out to play once a year...maybe.
 
No experience with the A22, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy one based on my personal experience with all my other Savages. The 10/22 is the Honda Civic of rimfires and there isn't much you can't do to one to improve it. For a 25-50 yard plinking gun the accuracy is fine and you should be able to knock down quarter size targets without issue with the right ammo. The 597 was the biggest pos I have ever owned and I wouldn't use one as a potato stake. The 30 round mags were also complete garbage that could be difficult to load to full capacity, fouled up quickly and caused feeding issues and required sanding down to actually fit into the mag well properly. When I finally had enough of it I replaced mine with the Savage 64 and it was in every way superior.
 
Savage 6 / Stevens 87 rifles are a lot of fun and loaded with vintage character. Bought my three in the last 6 years for $100 each or just under that; they tend to be $120 or so now in my area.

All steel actions, long and kind of heavy barrels, really interesting actions.
 
MDF said:
Savage 6 / Stevens 87 rifles are a lot of fun and loaded with vintage character. Bought my three in the last 6 years for $100 each or just under that; they tend to be $120 or so now in my area.

All steel actions, long and kind of heavy barrels, really interesting actions.
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I've looked at that one; came close to buying one last year, but the deal didn't work out for some reason. Looked like a fun plinker.

.22LRGUY said:
Well, I'm a bolt gun guy but have had a few semis come and go over the years. (including a new 10/22) I'm not overly thrilled with 10/22s, 597s OR Marlins...but Marlins are the best of the batch if you ask me. I've yet to shoot a stock/econo semi that didn't have a crappy trigger, and Marlins are no exception. Except, once you get the trigger a bit better (MCARBO, cheap & easy) you're pretty much set unless you want a wood stock upgrade. (talking Marlin 795) The mags fit tighter on the Marlins but I actually LIKE the mags themselves more. Single stack, easy to fill your pockets with them. High capacity mags don't interest me one bit.
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Looks like they do make a hi-cap 25 round mag for the 795, no idea if they're reliable or not. Single stack is nice for reliability, but loading 7 round mags sounds like it would get old fast. Trigger-wise, the A22 comes with the Savege Accutrigger, which might be a plus in its favour.
 
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I have the 597 Heavy Barrel, it was my second gun, and I cannot recommend buying one. It's easy, fun, and accurate to shoot, when it shoots. At just 200 rounds of any good brand, and it needs a full strip to clean the fouling that's in every nook and cranny. Don't clean it and it light strikes over and over. I swear that sometimes when it's a little bit dark out or I shoot indoors, I see a flash coming from the breach. I haven't been doing this long so I don't know if that's normal, abnormal, or dangerous. The 30 round magazines, well I dented a few casings trying to load them to 30 so I would stop at 25. No matter what, I have never ever had the last round feed. I kept a dummy in the mag as a last round after a while. It's cool looking and what grabbed me at first was it's size as I'm not super tall so it was comfortable to shoot off hand. It just ended up being unfun to shoot however.
 
apocalypse_unloaded said:
I have the 597 Heavy Barrel, it was my second gun, and I cannot recommend buying one. It's easy, fun, and accurate to shoot, when it shoots. At just 200 rounds of any good brand, and it needs a full strip to clean the fouling that's in every nook and cranny. Don't clean it and it light strikes over and over. I swear that sometimes when it's a little bit dark out or I shoot indoors, I see a flash coming from the breach. I haven't been doing this long so I don't know if that's normal, abnormal, or dangerous. The 30 round magazines, well I dented a few casings trying to load them to 30 so I would stop at 25. No matter what, I have never ever had the last round feed. I kept a dummy in the mag as a last round after a while. It's cool looking and what grabbed me at first was it's size as I'm not super tall so it was comfortable to shoot off hand. It just ended up being unfun to shoot however.
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That is all good to know. I am looking for something fun, and an unreliable gun is not a fun gun. However, I think getting a bit of flash through the ejection port is normal with most semi-auto .22s, just due to the way blow-back actions work.
 
I am not an expert...
I went to look at and buy a 597 and the sales person recommend the 10/22 (even thou they did not have any in stock)
I bought the 10/22 with a stock I liked, I added a scope and I am happy with it.
 
I've had a 597 LSS for 18 years (no, you can't get the laminate stock or stainless anymore :() and I've had no real issues with it, great plinking gun and pretty darn accurate for a factory semi. Last shot bolt hold open is a great feature. Aftermarket hammer and/or spring kit gives a decent 2-3 lbs trigger. Old gen plastic mags I could only load 6-7 rounds instead of the full ten or they wouldn't feed up. New mags and the metal ones could take all 10. Not much experience with the high cap mags, stiff to load at 25 so I left it there and thought that was plenty.

The one guy complaining about a fussy 597 could just as easily had similar with a 10/22. Luck O' the draw, as it were. Mine runs great, shoot a brick or more in a day no problem, of course you'll have to clean any gun well after that volume. No issues with my factory extractor either. Now, when I attempted stoning the sear and hammer... well... different story... don't do that. The parts are only surface hardened so if you remove that layer, they will wear out and become unsafe.





 
metalbender said:
Browning Buckmark Rifle
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I know a lot of people love their Buckmarks, but they're a bit pricey for me, I think.

RabidM4U5 said:
I've had a 597 LSS for 18 years (no, you can't get the laminate stock or stainless anymore :() and I've had no real issues with it, great plinking gun and pretty darn accurate for a factory semi. Last shot bolt hold open is a great feature. Aftermarket hammer and/or spring kit gives a decent 2-3 lbs trigger. Old gen plastic mags I could only load 6-7 rounds instead of the full ten or they wouldn't feed up. New mags and the metal ones could take all 10. Not much experience with the high cap mags, stiff to load at 25 so I left it there and thought that was plenty.

The one guy complaining about a fussy 597 could just as easily had similar with a 10/22. Luck O' the draw, as it were. Mine runs great, shoot a brick or more in a day no problem, of course you'll have to clean any gun well after that volume. No issues with my factory extractor either. Now, when I attempted stoning the sear and hammer... well... different story... don't do that. The parts are only surface hardened so if you remove that layer, they will wear out and become unsafe.
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This seems to be reflective of what I've seen online; all seems to depend on whether your get a nice example, or a lemon.
 
I just picked up a new 10/22 and began setting it up the way I liked. However I did manage to shoot it for about 500-700 rounds bone stock, with no scope. I had 2 failures to fire (ammo related, and both the same type of Eley high velocity) and that was it. I managed to get a 1 inch group at 25m fairly consistently off a shooting bag (with the ammo my gun liked, this was without touching the sights and it hitting below my sight picture. I have since added my new parts (nothing internal say for an extended charging handle and buffer) as well as new tech sights. I Went out last weekend and put another 300-500 rounds through it. 1 failure to fire (Eley again) and while I didn't do paper targets I has hitting my 4" plate at 35m while standing and using a sling as support with no trouble whatsoever.

My cousin also came last weekend with his new A22. He had at least 100 failure to fires, failure to ejects or just good old fashion jams. It was a new rifle as well. We tried about 8 different types of ammo. Disassembled the rifle, cleaned and lubed it as per the manual, and nothing worked. Granted the shots it did take, we're very precise. However this gun is being returned and a Ruger is being purchased. Sure if you have a poorer Ruger, there is a million things you can do with it. The A22 on the other hand is either return and replace, or live with it...

Cousins gun, over and over for a couple hundred rounds and a few hours of fiddling with it.
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Just my opinion.
 
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